Re: Watching the Economy Crumble

Russell.Martin@xxxxxxx wrote:
It somewhat depends on what one means by "fundamental".
Since "electronics" depends somewhat on "electrons", one
might argue that the "fundamental" discovery was that of
the electron. :-)

Electronic devices existed before the transistor. What was fundamentally different about the latter was how it was constructed and operated. Developments in integrated circuits led to completely new manufacturing methods, which were quickly adopted by industry.

Certainly the rather obvious commercial 
potential (and in some cases war efforts) pushed
electronics faster than some other fields.

More than anything, it was the space race that drove the electronic industry. The biggest problem in going to the moon is weight and anything which could reduce the size of the payload and boosters was worth considering.

Ironically, that may have also driven the arms race. Soviet electronics were several years behind what was available in the west, leading to larger packages for their missile guidance systems. They needed larger boosters to lift them, which led to the impression that the warheads were larger as well (in both size and yield).


Cheers,
Russell

.

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